It was bad enough Naomi had to be shipped off to her dad's home for the summer and deal with her half-brother Gavin, but when the siblings are forced to spend their break with their great-grandmother in upstate New York, everything changes. An investigation into the strange disappearance of their great-grandfather forces them to retrace his footsteps. They discover a gateway between worlds and encounter extraordinary creatures in a land where the people are desperate to escape the coming of a shade lord. To survive their adventure, Naomi and Gavin must settle their differences and find the elusive shadow gate that will take them home again.

This book follows two half siblings who have to stay with their great grandmother for the summer. There family has a few secrets in their past and the two kids embark upon an adventure to uncover the secrets and see where they lead.

I enjoyed reading this book about the two half siblings Naomi and Gavin. They both seem like very typical teenagers with their own drama and issues. When everything starts to go wrong they really grow together and become one force to be reckoned with. Naomi really grew on me during the books there were moments where she seemed a little to stuck up for this to work, but she really changed in the book to become a stronger character. Gavin on the other hand was my favorite character in the book. He takes everything that happens in stride and really presses on during the entire adventure. He has a very positive attitude and is able to keep himself very centered during extreme stress. Gavin really makes almost everything in the book possible. The bond that the two form really grows immensely when they are lost. The story follows Naomi and Gavin as they enter gateway between two worlds. The gateway brings them to a whole new world that they need to learn to navigate and figure out what is going on. Gavin really leads us through the adventure and is the more outgoing one in the book. The story really takes place in the new world that Naomi and Gavin have entered that has entirely different rules and creatures. There main goal is to get home, but to get there they take an adventure through the new world and learn a lot about the people in the world. The author did a great job creating this entire new world and the descriptions of the creatures as well as scenery really helped me envision where they were. The new world also has it's own set of issues that Naomi and Gavin get put right in the middle of. The author also has a lot of side characters in the book from the new world that I grew to really enjoy while reading. I had a few issues with the book that didn't really effect my opinion to much overall. I felt like Gavin was an all-star character where Naomi was more a background character. I would have like to have seen more of Naomi taking charge or not being portrayed as to scared during a good portion of the book. I also felt like I needed way more information about what drama was going on in the new world they were in. I felt incomplete when reading it and I had a lot of questions about what was really going on. I also didn't love one part of the end of the book. I felt like some decisions that where made could have been made differently to make the next book more interesting. I would suggest this as a nighttime read. There are portions of the book where a lot of action is occurring and you wouldn't want to put it down, but there are parts where you can take a break and digest what you are reading. I received a copy of this book from YA Bound Book Tours for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book or my review.My Rating 4/5

Michael W. Garza often finds himself wondering where his inspiration will come from next and in what form his imagination will bring it to life. The outcomes regularly surprise him and it’s always his ambition to amaze those curious enough to follow him and take in those results. He hopes everyone will find something that frightens, surprises, or simply astonishes them.

What a LOVELY cover! I feel like I saw a friend reading this one on Goodreads (though I could be wrong). I don't think I've ever read a book featuring half-siblings at the forefront! Gavin sounds like my type of guy. I'm glad you enjoyed this book, Kristyn!